I am not a gamer that usually enjoys fighting games. Aside from Smash Bros. I have almost no experience with them. Sure, I've messed around in Street Fighter for a few minutes, or tried out one a friend gifted me, or messed around in one based on an anime I enjoyed, but none of these games got me interested in playing fighting games in any way other than at a friends house or at a party.

Cue in Skullgirls, the first fighting game that makes the genre actually seem accessible. At least in my opinion. Skullgirls is a fairly standard 2d fighting game, with basic mechanics and not exactly throwing the formula for a twist much. So why is it good? Why should you give money to these devs for anything other than Indivisible? Well, it has 3 design aspects that make it better than most fighting games to a degree that makes it one of my favorite games on my steam list.

The first is the tutorial. Fighting games, especially 2d ones, are notoriously hard for players to really get in to and potentially play competetively. Special moves for each of the characters and which ones have what to look out for is hard enough, but extremely good characters can pull off insane combos, juggle you around, and generally smash what little confidence you may have had into a steaming pile on the cement. And most tutorial modes in fighting games, at least the ones I've experienced, only teach the very basics of kick and punch, maybe blocks and throws as well. But this game has those in its tutorial, as well as far more complex mechanics such as attack chaining and air dashing, and even individualized tutorials for each character to better understand their strengths and weaknesses. If you want to learn how to play a fighting game, even I can tell that this game really teaches you.

The second is the visual design. Yes its mostly cute anime-esque girls with bouncing boobs, but it also has a lot of actual good visuals on top of that. The different characters all look unique, and their designs complement how they seem to play. The backgrounds all look interesting, but aren't so gaudy to distract you from the action. Animations are fluid as long as you can run the game properly, and with this being a 2d fighter it's not like it takes up tons of resources. It may not seem huge, but if you've ever played a fighting game with poor visual design choices, you can really notice differences between that and this. That and the theatrical look and feel to everything really complements the bombastic and powerful combos and super moves you can pull off, making doing those things feel fantastic.

The third is simply the fact that the mechanics are so standard. Sure, you don't have fatalities like in Mortal Combat, or super flashy combos like in a lot of anime fighters (although you can still combo a lot, don't worry) but because of that, the knowledge you gain or already have is transferrable. Someone who is familiar with fighting games can probably pick this up and start playing no sweat. Someone unfamiliar with them can easily learn here and transfer that knowledge to help them better understand how to play that game. Rather than a weakness to make this game "uninteresting" since it doesn't really do much to change how fighting games are played, it's a strength due to the solid information this game can give you. That and these mechanics are inherintly fun, as evidenced by the numerous other fighting games in existence. Street Fighter isn't popular just because of the name, it's popular because the mechanics of the game are good.

Skullgirls is one of the best fighting games I have ever played in about the last 4 years, The gameplay feels great with a unique fighting system. It will feel very familiar to MvC players and even KOF players will feel a bit at home. Pulling off insane MvC style combos with the pre-combo planning of KOF, canceling into supers will fill any fighting game fanatic with glee. Each character has a very unique flavor and with the choice of 1 to 3 characters in a team you will always find something to suit your style. For example my team consists of Squiggly, Eliza, and valentine. Using Squiggs to pull in any mother ♥♥♥♥er playing keepaway only to bring in valentine to perform an insane amount of damage with her (admittidly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t) fast combo output, finishing off with the hard hitting (and rather fast) Eliza.

Next i'm gonna cover how the game looks (da grrafikss uuuuugghhnn *splooge*). The artstyle is unique to say the least, very western style anime-esque looks, and very vibrant. The characters really pop out on the screen and are quite bouncy (not just the boobs you pervs). It's very very clean animation, with such amazing fluidity you'd swear you're watching a high profile cartoon. The backgrounds, hooooooly♥♥♥♥♥♥the backgrounds, they are so well done. Amazing happenings in the backgrounds filled with references (and fun fact, custom characters made by backers, like matt and wooly from fisticuffs and Zone-tan... we know why SHE backed it.). Sometimes I find myself going into the training mode just to marvel at the hard work and beauty of the backgrounds. In essence, the art is amazing, and the boobs are bouncy.

Sound. I'm gonna give the soundtrack it's own section so I'm just gonna cover the hit effects and voice here.The voices really depend on how much female pain noises you can stand. Some are really squeaky (lookin at you Fillia.) but most are great and sound pretty adult. Nowhere NEAR as bad ans anime fighting chicks. Sadly if you want a voiced story you're SOL unless you wanna shell out an extra 15, though that 15 also gives you all the dlc characters and extra colors so it's not THAT bad (COUGH COUGH mkx COUGH COUGH). Now for the hit sounds. They. Are. MEATY! from the squishy slashing of Valentine's saw to the massive impact punches of Cerebella. You can tell the devs really cared about how their game sounded.

Music. Now I find the music quite odd, While it is beautiful with amazing opera-style pieces and smooth jazz, I don't find it quilte energetic enough for a fighting game. That being said the music during the actual fights never really distracted except for one or two somewhat slow jazz. Oh and if you absolutely HATE jazz, sorry bro, there's really nothing else.

All in all you can tell the creators really cared about their game, and made great use of the backer money. The refences and fan interaction from these guys are ♥♥♥♥in awesome. I hope they either take on another fighting game, or a Skullgirls 2. One gripe I have is the final boss on the arcade mods. ♥♥♥♥>YOU>MARIE.

Buy the game if you like fast combos and great art, buy the game for the amazing dev support, buy the game for the beautiful music, BUY THE GAME FOR BOUNCY♥♥♥♥♥♥